Me, Cancer & The Fault in Our Stars

My husband wanted to see The Fault in Our Stars. He had read the book and really likes the author. I have not read the book, and I was not especially interested in seeing the movie. It’s just not the type of movie I would normally see in a theater, It is the kind of movie that I would wait until DVD to see. So today we saw it.

I was somewhat apprehensive about how I would react. I try to avoid cancer movies, especially when I know there’s going to be death. In 2011 I was diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer. I am in remission. I don’t know if it’s the same for people who are 10 or 20 years out but at three years I still think about it every day. It was a very good movie, it really was. I didn’t react much at all. My husband said the movie was sanitized from the book, not much icky medical stuff. Just touched on it.

The only thing that stuck in an uncomfortable way is that it hit on my one big fear. Most cancers are found by luck or because they’ve become large and are interfering with someones life. That means you can be sitting around typing on your computer and you can have cancer in 72 different places in your body, and never know it. Honestly, that can be true for anyone, it’s just that my odds are little worse now.

I am as careful as I can be. I live a healthy lifestyle, I go to the doctor more often than any hypochondriac, and I and they watch like a hawk for any early warning signs. But you just don’t know and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it.

Since you were diagnosed…I’ve thought about it a lot. Finally now that I’m becoming who I was meant to be, I’m trying to be healthier and get out there and move to strengthen myself – mentally and physically. I believe that everyones life that you have touched has learned…thanks to your sharing and discussions about it. I try not to really focus on it because I don’t want to introduce anything negative into my life.